Friday, 28 October 2016

A bit of a blast from the past today, from 2005. I don't have anything new painted, so here is more of my progression through Blood Bowl teams. These were my fourth team, Pro Elves from Shadowforge. Pro Elves, or just Elves, are neither High nor Dark nor Wood, although these girls have stood in for a High Elf team as required. Their team name is I Seldi Serci Suluo. I was nerding it up big time, and this is (I think) Quenya for The Maidens of Blood Bowl. Really.

Blood Bowl Elves from Shadowforge

I went for a white and silver scheme, because many other teams at the time were very dark
with black undercoats, and my girls would stand out get noticed. I learned a lot about
painting white from this team- note the blue and grey shadows. I think it was the first time I used a white
undercoat. I'm pretty sure I used enamels! They're showing their age with a bit of chipping, and my painting style has changed/ improved.

While I was doing the Blitzers I was thinking about how
their eye sockets looked like gas masks. I was thinking of filling them with a
clear resin or varnish, but somehow got the idea of using clear sticky tape,
and was able to use it on all the other elves as well. I can really see the
elves having high-tech helmets to protect their beautiful faces. It has held up over all the years!

Elf blitzers

Elf throwers

There are only two catcher poses, so I used paperclips to add variety to this important positional with prancing, leaping poses.

Elf catchers

Line elves

I made this conversion from a Reaper figure, to represent Star Player
Princess Moranion. I'm really happy with how she came out. Milliput!

Princess Moranion

...and her hair

Reaper 02808 Taryn, Spearmaiden

The support staff have flowers from Milliput. If I ever
get around to it, I’ll make some more flowers to add to the players’ bases so
you can swiftly see extra skills (e.g. ‘All
the red flowers are Block’ etc.). The last cheerleader has a very weak ribbon holding her up and she suffers from chronic droop.

Elf coaches

Elf apothecary

Elf cheerleaders

I must mention that this team won ‘Best Painted’ at the
inaugural Eucalyptus Bowl, with a monstrous trophy. Still stoked.

I refined my playing style using these girls. They’re agile and fragile, so you have to make a fast offense and a stalling defence with depth, ready to switch to the offense when your opponent makes an error. Getting ‘Dump off’ on a catcher is great fun. They remain my all-time favourite team so far, being an economical, fast and agile team. I wonder if I will prefer Slann when I get around to them?

I painted these for the Analogue Challenge in March, and just realised I hadn't put them on this blog yet. I've still got some more good guys and undead to paint up. I do have concerns that FFG's upcoming RuneWars game will detract from BattleLore, and it may be given the boot :(

Friday, 14 October 2016

I took place in a mini-BB league recently, six progression games in six weeks. I could only make four games, and thought (foolishly) it would be good to take my halflings for a run. Ouch.

My starting roster was two Treemen, ten Halflings, one reroll. My strategy was to induce Deeproot and a Master Chef each game, which I was able to do.

The Wild Flings

Match 1. The Mariners (Human). 3-1 loss. I always enjoy playing my old opponent, Vimes. I got a hilarious TD at the end of the first half where the ball bounced from player to player before I caught it next to the end zone. After that, the league went downhill! I suffered 5 casualties and handed out 3.

Mariners vs Wild Fling

Match 2. The Queens of Lorien (Wood Elves). 4-2 loss. Despite their relatively weak armour, I lost this game to attrition against the Woodies, suffering 6 casualties.

Halflings try to stop the agile Wood Elf play

Match 3. The Zharr-Naggrund Bankers Union (Chaos Dwarves). 2-1 loss. Halflings struggle against Chaos Dwarves- they're faster, tougher, hurtier, and ignore your Dodge skill... I suffered 6-0 casualties, including two deaths, so I think I did OK to only lose by one TD!

Brave Halflings try to stem the Chaos Dwarf onslaught

Match 4. Ursurer's Guild- (Chaos Dwarves). 4-1 loss. What's worse than a Chaos Dwarf team? Two Chaos Dwarf teams! This match was a slaughter. I was so close to conceding, and I don't think I've ever done that before. I suffered 9 casualties... thankfully, the league ended!

Friday, 7 October 2016

The Magus

After the patriarch, the magus is the charismatic psychic leader of the cult. He is accompanied by familars, which are manifestations of psychic energy into baby genestealer form. I prefer to think of them as baby 'stealers.

Genestealer Cult Magus

Genestealer familiars

Magus and familiars

The Primus

Complementing the magus, the primus is the martial leader of the cult. He plans and leads the insurrection and the spread to other system worlds. I think he is a good addition to the existing genestealer mythology.

Genestealer Cult Primus

Purestrain genestealers

Purestrain genestealers

Genestealer Cult

So that's the entire cult completed! I'm really happy with how they came out. More pictures of the patriarch here, and hybrids here and here.

Genestealer Cult

Broodcoven

The genestealer generational cycle

I like how the hybrids get less bulky with each generation. The Purestrain is a seriously big boy in comparison to a regular human.

Notes on the sculpts

Darren Latham's sculpts are amazing- they pay superb homage to the Jes Goodwin/ Bob Olley originals in so many ways- the armour, the poses, the faces and tubes, the weapons.